Visa: Quarter of Brits to use mobile payments by 2020

UK mobile payments predicted to grow three-fold in the next five years, with consumers spending £1.2 billion per week in total

A quarter of Brits expect to use their mobile phone to make payments on a daily basis by 2020, growing from one in 12 who do so today.

This is according to the latest Mobile Money report from Visa Europe, with research conducted from April 30-May 20 in six European countries: Finland, France, Germany, Poland, spain and the UK. The sample size was 12,015 consumers – around 2,000 respondents per country.

The report claims consumer adoption of mobile payments will grow faster than ever in the next five years, with six in Brits expecting to use their mobile devices for payments at least once a week by 2020.

Visa Europe has estimated that consumers will spend £1.2 billion overall on mobile devices by that year, with the average shopper expecting to spend £27 each week, £10 more than is spent today.

Nearly a quarter of respondents (24 per cent) predicted they will spend more than £50 a week using their mobile device by 2020.

In addition, 43 per cent of British shoppers said they would be interested in using a mobile wallet service and nearly half (47 per cent) were interested in using their smartphone to make everyday contactless payments in a shop.

Visa Europe executive director for mobile Jeremy Nicholds said: “While we’re excited to see consumers saying they expect to triple their weekly spend using mobile payments over the next five years, we at Visa think those numbers could be rather conservative and that the actual adoption rate will be much higher. This is particularly true when you look at the growth in contactless usage, which saw European usage grow by 2x and spend grow by 3x over the last 12 months.

“Contactless and online commerce enhancements have been key in paving the way for the next generation of mobile payment technology. The environmental conditions are already in place to meet the demands and expectations for digital payments. It’s no longer a question of ‘if’ consumers will embrace this new way to pay – it’s when – and for us the next 12 months are when mobile payments become mainstream.”